ASC
The Army of the Southern Cross (ASC) rose to prominence as Earth's chief defender as the brainchild of an ambitious and pragmatic United Earth Defense Force (UEDF) military engineer named Colonel Anatole Leonard. Colonel Leonard had been a leading force on Project Excalibur, and helped give birth to the UEDF's Destroid Corps. He was instmmental, behind the scenes, in designing the annor doctrine used tlu·oughout the First Robotech War. Toward the end of the war in 2011, he was stationed at Antarctica Base, where he was perfonning sub-zero testing on new mecha designs. He was there, at the bottom of the Earth, when the Zentraedi orbital bombardment destroyed the majority of the Earth's population. During the ensuing chaos, Leonard dispatched a search party to locate survivors of any nearby UEDF bases in South America. After finding a UEDF fmtification that escaped destmction in the Andes, Leonard organized transports to gather loyal colleagues, subordinates and badly needed supplies. Colonel Leonard and his cadre barely made it to the base under siege by Zentraedi stragglers that had survived the fie1y battle. They were saved by automated defenses, but were forced to make an emergency crash landing that left many of those aboard dead or seriously wounded. The survivors were presented with two immediate problems: the utter collapse of the United Emih Government and a steady stream of panicked refugees fleeing the burning cities nearby. Leonard quickly took control, rounded up the few surviving members of the UEDF garrison, scavenged food and found shelter to care for the refugees. Over the next several weeks, the UEDF and civilian survivors, under the leadership of Leonard, set about the business of salvaging what was left of the base and established a more pennanent refugee camp. As time passed and word spread, more and more people flooded toward the fmtified encampment, including many surviving UEDF personnel. Colonel Leonard quickly reorganized the military personnel by area of specialty and began to draw up defense plans at what was now called Camp Esperanza. Desperate human and Zentraedi survivors had formed rogue bands of raiders and began preying upon the civilian population. After six months of subsistence rations and constant skinnishes with bandits and rogue Zentraedi, Camp Esperanza, under the leadership of Leonard, was able to repair the main communication lines and make contact with what remained of the UEDF leadership. Admiral Donald N. Hayes had been killed during the Zentraedi bombardment and Captain Hemy Gloval of the SDF-1 was now the most senior UEDF officer left in command. He was informed that his immediate area was a growing hot zone of violent clashes with rogue Zentraedi, and he was advised to abandon the base as the tattered UEDF would be unable to provide reinforcements. This was not the response Colonel Leonard had hoped for. Though he was overwhelmed and itching to get back to civilization, he was loath to abandon Camp Esperanza to the feral Zentraedi as the base had become a symbol of hope to the refugees. With little more than salvaged mecha and half-starved troops at his disposal, he made the best out of a bad situation and held off the rebel Zentraedi while setting the stage for the rise of a new army. Despite bitter disappointment and impossible odds, Colonel Leonard rallied a group of experienced officers to raise a new militia from the refugee population while gathering engineers who had worked with him on Project Excalibur. Then began the arduous task of building a fighting force out of these survivors and stragglers. Within three months he had mapped out a defense strategy and rough order of battle. He and his officers organized a ragtag band of fonner military personnel and refugees into a respectable fighting force. Finally, after exhaustive months of planning, building, and training, he had 5,000 men ready to face the Zentraedi Malcontents in the remote regions of South America. Staring into the southern sky one night after his umpteenth planning meeting and with a head full of smoke and glory, Leonard came upon the name for his new anny. The next day, the Army of the Southern Cross took the fight to the rebel Zentraedi. For the next several years, Leonard and his Army of the Southern Cross would push north and see action all the way to the isthmus of Central America. With their salvaged mecha and mismatched weapons and uniforms, they cleared wrecked Zentraedi ships, broke up terrorist cells, destroyed countless rebel and bandit outposts, routed pirates, squelched raiders, and kept Zentraedi Malcontents off balance and on the run. Along the way, he gathered resources and welcomed thousands of additional survivors who volunteered to join the ASC. Exploiting a common fear of aliens among the human populace, he even recruited misfits, bandits, reformed Anti-Unification League insurgents, and otherwise shady characters who honed their fighting skills on countless battlefields against the Zentraedi, using every trick they knew to win the day and coming up with new ones as necessary. The Army of the Southern Cross evolved into a real fighting machine as they cut a swath through the Zentraedi Malcontents, and came out the other side a lean, strong and capable fighting force. Leonard had effectively tamed the lower continent and became the de facto governor of the entire region. While the UEDF struggled to contain the Zentraedi resistance in North America, Leonard's success in restoring law and order in the south quickly gained notice by Admiral Gloval and Senator Moran, two of the key players in what remained of the United Earth Govemment. Though the (First) Robotech War had long been over, Lord Khyron, the mad leader of the Zentraedi rebellion, led a desperate, but calculated, attack upon New Macross City. Khyron was killed in the battle, but his plan had succeeded in destroying the SDF-1, the SDF-2, and a sizeable portion of the surrounding city. Now it was the United Earth Defense Force that ironically called upon Colonel Leonard to send reinforcements to help secure the area. Leonard left Camp Esperanza in the care of his top officers and flew to the UEDF base outside of the remains ofNew Macross City, where Senator Moran and the ranking officers of the UEDF greeted him and debriefed him on the current situation. The United Earth Government was fragmented across the globe and the UEDF had suffered a serious setback with the loss of the SDF-1, the SDF-2, and the venerable Admiral Gloval during the Battle of New Macross City. Leonard was praised for his work and resourcefulness in the south against the Zentraedi rebels, and finally received the news he had always wanted. The UEG requested that he retum to North America and help oversee the reconstruction efforts. In return, Leonard was given the .rank of General and a chest full of medals to accompany his triumphant retum to civilization. His retum, however, was not quite as grand or illustrious as he had imagined. It became quickly apparent that he was not being given sole command of the UEG's military forces as he had assumed. Rather, he would be the new commanding officer of peacekeeping forces, sharing the heady heights of power with Admiral Lisa Hunter and her husband, Rear Admiral Rick Hunter, who were planning a daring expedition into deep space. Constmction of the SDF-3 and the new United Earth Expeditionary Force (UEEF) was already underway, leaving General Leonard with few resources to maintain an effective peacekeeping force. He was forced to draw upon the existing infrastructure of the Anny of the Southern Cross, gradually expanding its operations into North America. He fought bitterly with the Hunters and the UEG Leadership Council in endless meetings over what he saw as foolhardy and wasteful "gallivanting" around the galaxy. Leonard argued that they needed to keep their forces here, on Earth. He made his case for fortifying the planet, rebuilding urban centers, and sealing themselves off from the rest of the galaxy, behind a wall of heavily armed space stations and combat satellites. The General was the lone voice of dissension and ultimately overruled. Plans to take the fight to the Robotech Masters were placed into effect against his sullen objections. For General Leonard, the onset of the expedition would actually be a mixed blessing. He learned that he and the Anny of the Southem Cross were to be left behind with the responsibility of safeguarding the planet. Leonard liked the idea that he would head Earth's defense while the rest of these idealists pranced off into outer space on a fool's errand. What the General objected to was the Hunters taking the best personnel, engineers, scientists, spacecraft, and most advanced combat mecha with them to the far end of the galaxy. The UEG was convinced that the threat of a second alien invasion was unlikely, and saw fit to leave him with scraps and minimal resources to carry out his mission. Not a man to trifle with, General Leonard and his trusted officers began a campaign to consolidate both military and political power. He instituted a hardline policy of mandatory micronization to mitigate the threat of all remaining Zentraedi on Earth. He was able to place allies on the Leadership Council to procure some share of combat engineers and resources to supplement the Army of the Southern Cross with its own range of mecha and war machines. He personally oversaw the development of new infantry mecha, armored fighting vehicles, and weapon systems that were unique from those used by the UEDF or UEEF. He organized the construction of a new capital from which to administer the United Earth Government and the ASC. If he was going to be left to be Earth's sole defense, then he insisted on being given the tools to do his job. It was a position that few could argue with. In 2017, construction of the new capital was completed at Monument City and the Global Military Police (GMP) was established to secure law and order in civilian population centers. Still feeling ostracized and a little betrayed by the UEEF, Leonard made a conscious effort to distance himself from them and create a distinctive look for the Anny of the Southern Cross. Everything from mecha to uniforms would be different. Even with his growing influence, Leonard always felt cheated and short-changed by the UEEF. He only got a fraction of the funding, scientific minds or resources to build the army and Earth defenses he believed were necessary to safeguard the planet a point of contention that left him bitter and angry throughout his career. By the time the United Earth Expeditionary Force (UEEF) blasted into space in 2022, General Leonard's allies had infiltrated all levels of the government, allowing him to attain the mantle of Supreme Commander of Military Forces, a position from which he could have greater influence on shaping the policies of the UEG through Prime Minister Moran. Over the next seven years, Leonard used the ASC and the GMP to continue consolidating more power. Despite his heavy-handed approach and micro-management of the armed forces, Supreme Cmmnander Leonard brought about much needed stability and security across the globe. The UEG hammered out treaties with assorted neighboring states and brought nearly the entire world under the protective umbrella of the Anny of the Southern Cross. Small conflicts broke out with separatists and rebels in remote regions, but overall, it was the quietest stretch of history the planet had seen in decades. This peace was shattered in January of 2029, when the signal from Space Station Liberty was lost. The Robotech Masters had come calling. They were looking to reclaim Zor' s ship (or at least the Protoculture Matrix hidden within it) as well as Dolza's wayward Zentraedi Armada. They were not prepared for what they found - Dolza and the fleet missing in action, the rest of the Armada destroyed and in ruin. They also found the Army of the Southern Cross waiting to greet them on Earth. In a strange way, Supreme Commander Leonard felt vindicated. He had always wamed that the Earth was being left unprepared for another alien invasion, and now here it was. The Hunters had failed, as he had known they would. Now it was up to him to protect the Earth, and he was ready. These aliens would not find his Army of the Southem Cross an easy adversary. He would prove to evetyone that Anatole Leonard had what it took to defend the world. In April 2029, Leonard launched an extremely aggressive and single-minded campaign against the new alien invaders. Against the counsel of his most senior officers and advisors, he ordered increasingly risky strategies that would raise the stakes for the wounded planet in yet another intergalactic war. Copyright - Palladium Books